How the Spurs got here: Beat the No. 8 seed Dallas Mavericks 4-3 in the first round, No. 5 seed Portland Trail Blazers 4-1 in the second round and No. 2 seed Oklahoma City Thunder 4-2 in the Western Conference finals.

USA TODAY Sports' Sam Amick gives his pick for the NBA Finals, and the monumental rematch between Miami and San Antonio.

Why San Antonio will win: The Spurs have been the best team in the NBA all season. They have unprecedented depth, with no one averaging 30 minutes a game in the regular season, and they play with a natural grace through ball movement that makes them one of the most beautiful-to-watch teams in the NBA. That's a product of coach Gregg Popovich, who is the very best in the business. Popovich's system negates the effects of opposing stars better than any other, not by shutting down players like James as much as making them less impactful on the outcome of the game.

The Spurs were less than 10 seconds from the championship last year against the Heat before Ray Allen hit a miracle three-pointer to send Game 6 to overtime. The West was much tougher than the East, so the Spurs have had to be in form for longer in the playoffs. Allen and Chris Andersen, the best players on the Heat bench, dealt with injuries against the Spurs, and the Heat already were not going to match up with the Spurs' second unit favorably. Also, this could be Tim Duncan's final season, and it's easy to imagine the four-time champions coming up with one last dominant performance to win a fifth ring.

Why the Heat will win: LeBron James is LeBron James, still the best player in the world even as Kevin Durant stripped him of the NBA MVP. The Heat are the two-time defending champions. They seemed primed to lose last season to the Spurs, then just didn't. There's an air of invincibility with this Heat team right now, as though it's their fate to join the legendary three-in-a-row champions of NBA years past. Wade has returned to form in the playoffs after regularly sitting out during the season to keep his knee fresh for this time of year. Third All-Star Chris Bosh also played well to close the Pacers series.

No team stretches a defense quite as well as the Heat, with James and Wade penetrating and everyone else hitting open three-pointers. And the Heat buy into everything from coach Erik Spoelstra, who no longer has to prove himself to earn his place among the NBA's best. Spurs point guard Tony Parker has dealt with ankle issues and missed the entire second half of Game 6 of the West finals, which could be the exact push the Heat need to maintain their status as favorites.

Did you know? This meeting is the 12th NBA Finals rematch but only the fifth since the NBA-ABA merger of 1976. The defending champion has gone 6-6 in those matchups, with the most recent example in the 1998 Finals, when the Chicago Bulls beat the Utah Jazz for the second season in a row.

Game 2 in Miami: Heat 103, Spurs 84 - Miami Heat small forward LeBron James (6) dunks against the San Antonio Spurs during the fourth quarter of game two of the 2013 NBA Finals at the American Airlines Arena.
Derrick E. Hingle, USA TODAY Sports

Game 1 in Miami: Spurs 92, Heat 88 --Miami Heat small forward LeBron James drives to the basket against San Antonio Spurs power forward Tim Duncan during the first quarter
Steve Mitchell, USA TODAY Sports